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Thursday, 31 October 2013

Hey there. Welcome to all my established and my new readers, Glad you have joined me at Graham's landing. Another month has flown by and it's that time again for our scavenger hunt. Joining in with Greenthumb at Madewithlove here are my 12 photographs.

Flower

One of the things I enjoyed looking at whilst I was at home was the vast amount of flowers. I particularly liked that all the bunches and bouquets I had seen were in seasonal colours- and I just love this one with ornamental cabbages:)

Black and White

As I was sorting out photos and things for my grandma's birthday I found this black and white one of her wedding. There's a bit of a glare on the photo as it was framed, but I love this photo. Her dress was a pale blue, by the way, and this was 1943.

Orange

No kidding, this pumpkin was huge. A small child could sit on it!

Homemade

Not homemade by me, but still homemade. I went to a little local craft fair whilst in the UK and bought this fabric brooch, corsage thingy- not sure what I'll wear it with but I liked the fabric. I wondered why, then got home and realised I had the same fabric in my stash!

Flight

My last flight over half term week- the 6th flight in a week! This one was from KL TO KK, Unfortunately I made the flight but my luggage didn't! It arrived later that evening luckily!

Emotion

I love these photos and couldn't choose between which one, so I apologise for having both- This is my friends little girl B, She was very happy in the first one as she was watching a balloon. The second photo was some elderly gentleman that took a shine to hear when we were watching the horse festival. I love the look of absolute delight on his face:)

2

I found a group of metal house numbers for sale in our local garden centre- obviously they must have ran out of number 1s!

Balloon

﻿

A whole bunch of them at the horse festival. B bought the Nemo one!

Rubbish

Unfortunately this is just the norm here in Malaysia

Weather Cock

A weather cock found, in all places, in the centre of Dubai Airport!

Fridge Magnet

Some of my fridge magnets I have picked up one my travels, and others have been sent to me- My mum sent me the OMG one and my favourites are the NYC ones that my sister picked up for me the last time she was there- lucky thing:)

Coffee time

Well this was an easy one for me- you know what I'm like for my love of coffee shops!

Well, that's it for another month, hope you enjoyed them- here's looking forward to November's list.

Tuesday, 29 October 2013

Today I just had to go shopping! -I needed some buttons- red ones -and some safety pins- nothing elaborate, not a massive list on the shopping front- but I needed them today. Now it takes me very little to be coerced into spending money- so shopping wasn't such a hardship. So even when I was asked to get some more bits and pieces- brooch backs and more buttons, I was happy to say yes- Oh that was a big mistake! You see- shopping isn't a problem , but knowing when to stop is!

Haberdashery shops, well what can I say- they make me go weak at the knees and I'm like a child in a candy store- so many little drawers filled with buttons and beads, spools of ribbons and lace and racks and racks of threads of every hue- I loved it.

I always remember, as a little girl,walking up the main street to the haberdashery shop. I remember the door bell ringing and stepping up towards the back of the shop where spools of ribbon were lined up in a glass fronted sales cabinet. Behind stood wall to wall wooden cupboards filled with goodness knows what.

We would stand there, my sister and I, and gaze longingly at all the different spools- plain, checked, stripy- all the colours of the rainbow in every width of ribbon- wanting them all. Then we would choose one, get a yard, or maybe even just half a yard, for each of us, which the sales lady would then twist into a little white paper bag, for us to carry home. We would then wear our ribbons, tied to the ends of our pigtails, plaits or pony tails and quite often, if we had got different colours that is, our hair ribbon colour was the only way that people could tell us apart:)

So imagine today, being forced to go shopping for buttons- I just couldn't stop! Unfortunately I didn't just stop at buttons- I succumbed to buying ribbon- just for old times sake of course!

So that leaves me with my 10 things Tuesday- 10 bright and colourful things I have seen on my travels and all inspired by my new button purchase!

1.

Colourful beach huts in Devon, UK.

2.

A weird and wonderful art installation, painted onto a wall somewhere in Singapore I think!

3.

A tree full of artificial sweets and lollipops.

4.

Paper parasols set up for display in the night market in Laos

5.

Colourful offerings and temple adornments from Bali.

6

A very multi-coloured sparkly elephant:)

7.

Scarves and pashminas from Laos

8.

Hindu flower garlands in Little India, Singapore

9.

A rainbow of CD Cases

10.

Quirky, cute and colourful hat:)

So there you go, 10 rainbow coloured items to make us all feel a little brighter and more cheery now that Autumn is here.

Sunday, 27 October 2013

Another week has flown by- So here I am, joining in with Jen at Little birdie to share some of my week's happy moments and things that made me smile

Wk 43

21st October - 27th October

A visit To Kota Belud Annual Horse Festival- It was a great day and I shall be posting a few more pics later in the week. Saying that I took nearly 400! so I shall have to have time to pare them down:)

My friend, Christine, and I hosted a 'soups and sweets night'- No main courses, just a selection of soups and deserts for 14 people. It was a very pleasant evening and despite feeling like I had been cooking all week- it was fun. As you kow I love to cook and bake, so it was a double happy! We set up the room café style and then got on with serving:)

Just returning back from the UK definitely has it's perks- aside from every one else's requests to bring back various food items- Chocolate Hobnobs being the firm favourite- I also managed to bring back some decent cheese- so fresh bread and Crumbly Lancashire cheese has never tasted so good!

A bit of a strange photo I know! This is Fluffy the Orang-utan. It belongs to my friend's little girl. We were out for dinner and Fluffy came with us all. Now, obviously as cute as he or she is, Fluffy is not my Happy- But what has made me smile this week has been the amount of time I have spent with my friends back here in Borneo. Whether it has been dinner out, a quick coffee or a hug to get me through the day- I have had it all this week! The support and friendship I have felt this week has been great. My Jet lag was terrible, I'm worried about my mum and dad, and for a lot of the week I have been tired and miserable, but with friends as good as these- I know they made the week so much easier. Such a blessing :)

Friday, 25 October 2013

I really wanted to join this last month-a collection of cookies baked by bloggers- what a great idea- and so after seeing Greenthumb's beautiful cookies, here, decided that I would have a go too. The theme for this month is apples. Now apples in the UK are abundant at this time of year- it's a very autumnal ingredient- here on Borneo, it's quite a different story! We have all our apples imported from China. New Zealand, Australia and the US- It's a real hit and miss situation. However I managed to find some nice Fuji apples, that didn't cost the earth - as they often do- and decided to make these

Cream the butter and sugar (If you're wondering why it's a strange colour- I used a mixture of brown and white sugar, although the recipe does say white!)

Add the egg and the shredded apple. Stir in the vanilla essence.

In a separate bowl mix the flour, salt, cinnamon and baking powder.

Add the wet batter, half at a time and stir

Finally fold in the nuts

On
a large baking sheet drop a tablespoon size of batter, no more than 12 cookies
to a sheet.Sometimes it is easier to
stick the batter in the refrigerator for 30 minutes.This allows for less sticky measuring and
scooping of the dough.It
is essential to bake these cookies for a full 14 minutes.The tops will be golden.Mushy-in-the-middle apple cookies are no
good!As long as the tops are a light
gold, the cookies are fully done.

While the first batch of cookies are baking, combine the
remaining sugar and cinnamon in a small bowl.When the first cookies come out of the oven, sprinkle the tops with the
sugar-cinnamon mix.The warmth of the
freshly basked cookies allows the sugar-cinnamon mix to stick!You may also sprinkle this on before cooking-
See which way you prefer!

If you prefer a softer thicker cookie then place the mixture in the fridge for a while before cooking- I had to do this as I was cooking in school- they come out very different than if you just cook them straight from the bowl- Try them and see which way you prefer- either way, the flavours are lovely:)

If you want to see what all the cookie craze is all about have a look at -creativecookieexchange/# and follow the steps below

1. Write a blog post with recipe and original photo (please include some language here specific to that month's theme). We would like the recipe to be one you’re making for the first time, and photos must be original.

2. Post the Cookie Exchange badge somewhere on your blog so others can join in the fun:

You can participate in our Link Party by baking us a cookie with apples–and keep in mind you may use ANY ingredients made from apples. Raw apples, dried apples, apple jelly, apple brandy, etc

Tuesday, 22 October 2013

Autumn or fall, whatever you want to call it- is my favourite season. Lucky enough to be at home this last week- I managed to catch a snippet of an English autumn. Things weren't yet in full swing, leaves were just turning as I left to come back- but here are a few things that tell me Autumn is here.

You know it's Autumn when:1.

You can find conkers on the ground:)

2.

Leaves are golden, fallen and crisp

3.

Pumpkins are picked and ready for carving

4.

Sunrises are later and there's frost on the ground.

5.

Home made vegetable broth is on the menu, warming and wholesome comfort food.

6.

The first lot of berries hang on the trees- ready for a harsh winter.

7.

Halloween goodies hit the shops

8.

Quickly followed by Christmas wonderlands and decorations!

9.

Fresh flowers favour all the colours of the season10.

You have crisp, fresh days, just calling out for a brisk walk.

So that's it- My take on 10 things about Autumn

But then I found this set of quotes and thought they did a better job than me!Until next time,Amanda x